Operation CASTLE Commander's Report
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- Publication date
- 1954
- Topics
- Operation Castle, Castle, atomic, nuclear, Cold War, atomic testing, nuclear testing, 1951, military, Eniwetok, Enewetak, Eniwetak, Bikini, Bikini Atoll, Pacific Proving Ground, national defense, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, radiation, radioactivity, fallout, radioactive, thermonuclear test, thermonuclear
- Publisher
- Lookout Mountain Laboratory, U.S. Air Force, Hollywood California
- Language
- English
- Rights
- This film has a license because of the personal work in technical processes of digitally improving this film's quality. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ This license for "CastleCommandersReport1954" or "Operation Castle Commander's Report" is held by financially contributing administrators of the Nuclear Weapons Vault, the provider of this film.
- Item Size
- 1.1G
CASTLE represented the end of a drive for a workable thermonuclear weapon and the beginning of the refinement of large-H-bombs into smaller and more efficient weapons. After CASTLE, the U.S. could choose in a range of small tactical weapons to large strategic weapons. From this point, weapons development programs concentrated on producing bombs of specific nuclear weapons effects -- heat, blast, and radiation.
The Bravo event of the CASTLE series yielded 15 megatons, unexpectedly the most ever exploded in atmospheric testing by the U.S.. A scientific miscalculation based on a then-unknown "tritium fusion bonus" of highly enriched lithium-6 contributing the the detonation yield caused the yield to be about two and a half times of that what was expected.
Reports indicate that Bravo was the single worst incident of fallout exposure in all of the U.S. atmospheric testing program. Despite winds in an acceptable flow zone, the greatly unexpected yield caused a much larger mushroom than originally calculated, causing a much wider and massive accumulation path of fallout danger. Fallout was scattered over more than 5,000 square miles of ocean and islands, resulting in the contamination and exposure of military, civilian U.S. personnel working on the shot, and people of the islands who were earlier moved to a supposedly "safe" island but received large amounts of radiation. Acute radiation effects were observed among some of these people.
The supreme commander of Joint Task Force 7 was Major General Percy Clarkson, who gave this report to top secret oversight committees of U.S. Congress. General Clarkson was the U.S. Army's 33rd Division commander (October 1943 - November 1945) in the raging battles of the Philippines during the Second World War.
The shots in the CASTLE series were:
Bravo, February 28, Bikini, 15 megatons
Romeo, March 26, Bikini, 11 megatons
Koon, April 6, Bikini, 110 kilotons (sanitized out of the film as a fizzle of 1 megaton predicted yield)
Union, April 25, Bikini, 6.9 megatons
Yankee, May 4, Bikini, 13.5 megatons
Nectar, May 13, Enewetak, 1.69 megatons
Opening narration: Carey Wilson
Wilson was a very influential producer and scriptwriter in Hollywood -- principally with MGM -- and led a double life role as a "Q-Clearance" presenter and contributing scriptwriter in top secret films produced by the Atomic Energy Commission and the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP).
Q-Clearance was a top secret classification within the Atomic Energy Commission, later renamed to the Department of Energy.
Weapons development narration: Dr. Alvin C. Graves, Scientific Commander, J-Division (weapons testing), Atomic Energy Commission
Related sites:
http://www.archive.org/details/ExerciseDesertRock1951
http://www.archive.org/details/OperationGreenhouse1951
http://www.archive.org/details/TumblerSnapper1952
http://www.archive.org/details/OperationIVY1952
http://www.archive.org/details/The280mmGunattheNevadaProvingGround1953
http://www.archive.org/details/MilitaryEffectsStudiesonOperationCastle1954
http://www.archive.org/details/MilitaryEffectsonOperationRedwing1956
http://www.archive.org/details/OperationDOMINICNuclearTests1962
Credits
The license holder of this film insists that any site (or individuals) linking or independently displaying through any Internet protocol to this film, to visibly, clearly and fully credit in text this organization ["Nuclear Weapons Vault"] on any pages linked, for providing this film: "Provided by the Nuclear Weapons Vault" This license does NOT allow derivations or alterations of this film. This license does NOT allow use of any portion of this film as part of other films, and this license does NOT allow artistic or technical alterations or commercial uses. This license does NOT allow this film to be displayed other than its entirety in the final forms of the files posted at Archive.org.
- Addeddate
- 2006-01-18 04:12:32
- Color
- color, originated from 16 mm color celluloid stocks of the time
- Ia_orig__runtime
- 13 minutes 42 seconds
- Identifier
- CastleCommandersReport1954
- Run time
- 13:42
- Sound
- sound, mono
- Year
- 1954
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